𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐈𝐄 | 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬

how to cure amnesia no borax, no glue ?

{ JASON }

Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a shitty day.

He woke up in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, sitting with a girl he didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the shitty part. The boy couldn't figure out who she was or what he was doing there. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to think.

A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. They all looked around his age...fifteen? Sixteen? The fact that he didn't know his own age scared him.

The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Outside the windows, the desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. Jason was pretty sure he didn't live in the desert. He tried to think back...the last thing he remembered...

The girl looked at him. "Jason, you okay?"

She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides.

She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, green.

Jason shifted in his seat. "Um, I don't—"

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"

The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face like he'd eaten something moldy.

His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon pants and Nikes were spotless white. A while hung from his neck and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would've looked pretty scary if he hadn't been five feet zero.

When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"

"I heard that!" The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl depended.

A shiver went down Jason's spine. He was sure the coach knew he didn't belong there. He was going to call the blond out, demand to know what he was doing on the bus—and Jason didn't have a clue what to say.

But the gym teacher looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip. I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."

He picked up a baseball bat and made it look like he was hitting a homer.

Jason looked at the girl next to him. "Can he talk to us that way?"

She shrugged. "Always does. This is the Wilderness School. 'Where kids are the animals.' "

She said it was like a joke they'd shared before.

"This is some kind of mistake," Jason said. "I'm not supposed to be here."

The boy in front of him turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Lorelai didn't blow up eight schools—"

The girl in front turned around. "I didn't blow them up on purpose, it was a simple misunderstanding."

"That's what they all say," The boy said, shaking his head. "And Piper didn't steal a BMW."

The girl next to Jason blushed. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"

"Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was it again? I think you 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you." Leo looked at the blonde girl next to him who nodded in agreement.